Before the Kodiak Launch Complex was opened on roughly 3,700 acres of state land in 1998, there was nothing obstructing the picturesque landscape near Narrow Cape, on the southeastern tip of the Kodiak Island road system. Rolling hills with grazing cattle, eagles perched on lone spruce trees and fields of colorful wildflowers as far as the eye can see.
A variety of native species like gray whales, harbor seals, and migratory birds call that area home, along with some non-native species. For decades the largest working game ranch in the state, Kodiak Game Ranch, operated on 160 acres at Narrow Cape with more than 20,000 acres leased from the state for grazing rights, featuring imported animals like Rocky Mountain elk, buffalo and even yak. Christine Burton was one of the ranch’s owners.
“We’ve been out there, been owners of that property since, I think like 1964 or 1967," Burton told Adam Federman of Type Investigations. "But my in-laws had actually worked on that ranch long before they bought it.”
But after years of fighting with locals who were trespassing, poaching their animals and vandalizing the property, Burton said it wasn’t worth it anymore. She also said that when prior rocket launches or tests occurred at the spaceport, like the one in August of 2025, the Burton’s access to and from their own land was impeded because of road closures.
Christine and her husband Buckley, who goes by Buck, spent the last ten years off and on trying to sell the land where their game ranch operated. On Feb. 27, they found a buyer.
“And it just so happened that the rocket launch didn't want to have a whole community down there that they had to deal with, so they offered to buy,” Christine Burton said.
The Alaska Aerospace Corporation, which owns and operates the Kodiak Island spaceport, bought roughly 140 acres of the Burton’s 160 acres for $2.4 million.
Ironically, Christine said her father-in-law, Bill Burton, was extremely opposed to a spaceport coming to the area from the get-go. But now she said there’s nothing they can do to stop Alaska Aerospace’s forward momentum. Even some of her family members work at the spaceport.
The corporation’s CEO and president, John Oberst, told KMXT during a live call-in show on Sept. 22 that they don’t plan to use the land for launch activities, but would like to upgrade the Narrow Cape Lodge to support contractors and government employees coming to the spaceport. The lodge is owned by Bernie Karl of Fairbanks and sits on land he leases from the corporation. The lodge was not part of Alaska Aerospace’s land purchase or access agreement with the Burtons, according to Oberst.
Still, some locals have expressed concerns about how this will limit public access to the beaches and trails around Narrow Cape.
“There's not that many places for the public to go on the island, that's not private or, you know, federal lands," Carolyn Heitman said. "So I mean, that's a main recreation place.”
Heitman has lived in Kodiak for most of her adult life and spent many of those decades advocating to maintain public access and for more transparency at the spaceport. When ABL Space System’s last failed rocket test happened in July of 2024 for example, Heitman requested reports from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation on the cleanup of 1,800 gallons of spilled aviation fuel. A year before that, in January of 2023, the same company had attempted to launch a rocket which resulted in a fiery crash and a fuel spill of more than 6,000 gallons of aviation fuel.
She said increased activity at the spaceport will only heighten the risk of damage to the environment, as well as to local infrastructure.
“So here they come to Kodiak, you know, and they're barging the stuff on our roads," she said. "But if there's an explosion, that's going to close our road system.”
During previous rocket tests or launches, Alaska Aerospace has closed sections of the island’s only road from Pasagshak to the southeastern end, a stretch of about seven miles that includes the sole land access to some public beaches, trails, and the spaceport. Those road closures have been a source of contention for locals, and the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly, for years.
According to an environmental assessment of the spaceport, released ten years ago in 2016 by the Federal Aviation Administration and other federal agencies, spaceport activities are found to have a, “minor effect on recreation opportunities at Narrow Cape,” which includes Fossil Beach, Surfers Beach and Twin Lakes along with the areas where deer hunters frequent. During that time the Kodiak Island spaceport was only licensed for nine launches annually but the FAA is currently considering an application to increase that number to 36.
The environmental assessment also found that prior launch failures, like the Army’s explosive failed launch in 2014 that significantly damaged the launch tower and parts of the payload processing facility on site, did not cause, “any contamination that would require remediation.”
This summer the Federal Aviation Administration also proposed a rule change to waive certain environmental laws and regulations to make it easier for commercial space launches to receive licenses.
Oberst, with the corporation, said failed tests and spills of rocket fuel are to be expected in the space business, but Alaska Aerospace is trying to reduce the potential amount of contamination at the spaceport's launch pads.
“Because we know it’s going to happen again, it’s just part of the business," he said. "Well, we can line the pads and when you line the pads, you know that whatever is on the pad is contained down to that liner, and we can remove that. So, it’s a lot less material to take off island and to process.”
Oberst said the two new launch pads currently being built at the spaceport will feature this new lining to help trap contamination and prevent it from seeping into the soil or water. Those pads will be used by Rocket Lab for missile defense testing as part of its recently announced $266 million contract with the U.S. Air Force.
Oberst also expects increased security such as video surveillance and security guards to be put in place at the spaceport once Rocket Lab, a private space company out of California, establishes what it calls its Launch Complex 4.
Heitman said all signs point to less public access at Narrow Cape, which is only accessible using the state-owned road through the spaceport.
“The day probably will come that there will be no access," she said. "It'll be another Cape Canaveral, you know, and there won't be any access at all to that point.”
Oberst said his intent is for the opposite; he wants to provide more public access at Narrow Cape. He told KMXT listeners during a live call-in show on Sept. 22 that he is interested in restoring a second road around the spaceport so that residents can still access Narrow Cape, even during launches.
“I think it would be a good idea to have an access road down there with a public area where the public can actually watch launches," he said.
Thus far there has been no formal action taken to reestablish the old Narrow Cape road.
So, what’s the solution to prevent environmental damage, maintain public access and still have a successful spaceport on Kodiak Island? Heitman said she doesn’t see any good solution.
“They’ve got all the federal funding. You got people in Congress, our Congressman, people are giving funding and Lisa Murkowski just gave $45.5 million between the Virginia Spaceport and the Kodiak one," Heitman said. "So, how do you fight that?
Well, the old saying is, if you can’t beat them, join them. Kodiak Island Borough Mayor Jared Griffin said locals should consider taking that approach instead.
“Kodiak for too long has just been sitting around, like having things happen to them and then reacting," he said. "But I keep saying, we got to think about this differently. Yes, things are happening to us, but we've got to seize on it. It's going to look different.”
For transparency, Griffin is also the general manager of KMXT radio station. Per KMXT’s policy, he does not have any editorial influence over news stories and doesn’t review them before they air.
Still there are other ideas the corporation is exploring that locals are also skeptical of, like a barge landing study to put a potential dock near the spaceport. We’ll have more details about those plans and what the future of the spaceport and community could look like in the final part of this 3-part series.
Editor's note: This series is a collaboration between KMXT and Type Investigations and was supported by the Pulitzer Center.
